<p>I kinda agree with sofla on one thing she/he said, Berkeley is definately known more internationally...esp in asia! lol</p>
<p>sofla is dumb dumb dumb stupid dumb</p>
<p>It sounds as if you visited Rice and Cornell, but did you visit Berkeley, and talk to actual students in your field there? My D is interested in science, but not necessarily medicine. She considered applying to all three schools, but ended up only applying to Cornell (accepted; seems likely to go). My H/D's stepdad is from Houston and grew up living almost on the Rice campus, with a mom who worked there. He loves Rice and says all the same positives as you mentioned, including ample good science or premed opportunities nearby. H and I both have colleagues in Houston (in science) and would agree, it is a fine place to be pre-med. D seriously considered applying, but did not want to live in Houston. She also nixed Berkeley. Last year, we visited some faculty friends there, and they helped us arrange an informal visit---hand picked some science major undergrads to speak with D. Four of 4 students said they hated it! all four said it was too big and unwieldy, and said they'd never choose it again, even knowing they were talking to a kid whose parents were about to have dinner with their profs (!). One young woman told D she was never notified that she had to sign up for science classes and would have flunked out if not for having a junior roommate, who told her. I was astounded. I viewed Berkeley as the dream school for D, based on judgments at my level (faculty)---world class science, great location, gorgeous campus, great weather, etc. Apparently the undergrad experience was not what I imagined, or just not the right fit for my D and the students she met. D just visited Cornell and loved it. She talked to a student from her HS whom she knows well, who's very happy (engineering). I think visits are key, if at all possible. Good luck.</p>
<p>Berkeley's med school admit rate was a little under 70% last time I checked. That's pretty good considering Berkeley does not have a pre-med committee and considering Berkeley is composed of 90% California residents. Being a California resident pre-med is a disadvantage because California's public medical schools (UCSF, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCI) are all ultra-competitive. So while most of the pre-meds at say, Cornell, have the advantage of applying to private med schools as well as to less selective home state med schools as backup, most Berkeley pre-meds don't have this luxury as their state med schools are actually HARDER to get into than the vast majority of private med schools.</p>
<p>Stanford University is composed of 50% California residents. Perhaps this explains why Stanford's 75% pre-med acceptance rate is lower than you'd expect from a school of Stanford's reputation.</p>
<p>Also, don't expect a complete pre-med profile from Berkeley's career center website because less than one-third of Berkeley medical school applicants bother to release their data to the career center (I'm one of the Berkeley med admits that didn't bother to release data to the career center = sorry, career center folks).</p>
<p>I stongly recommend Berkeley. I spent 3 years there, took a year off, and i'm currently picking up an MS degree from Stanford before heading off to medical school. Berkeley science is tough, but the quality of the education is top-notch. Believe it or not, I didn't realize how great (and under-rated) Berkeley was until I started school at Stanford. I directly credit the education I got at Berkeley for allowing me to score 99th percentile on the MCAT (without even having to take a prep course), because I challenged myself by taking some of the hardest science courses Berkeley had to offer. If you do well as a Berkeley science major, you WILL get into a top grad program or med school. I have lost track of how many of my friends go to top medical school or Harvard/MIT/Stanford/Berkeley/CalTech/Princeton/Yale/Cornell/etc for grad school, but I can HONESTLY say that MOST of my science major friends do, including around 20 acquaintances+friends that are at Stanford ALONE. </p>
<p>No doubt Cornell is a great school (I almost decided to go there five years ago), but the truth is, I would choose Berkeley over ANY school if I could do college all over again. My years at Berkeley were some of the best in my life, and I would strongly recommend Berkeley to any serious student. The Bay Area is a fantastic place to live, and even within the Bay Area, Berkeley is a gem. Most people who visit Berkeley only see the campus and the gritty area bordering Oakland, but North Berkeley and the Hills are picturesque to say the least. Between having the beautiful Berkeley Hills next door, quaint towns and streets nearby, San Francisco 20 minutes away, Tahoe a few hours away, sailing down at the Berkeley Marina, a vibrant college town and campus, the best food i've ever eaten, scenic coastal highway nearby, under great weather, and a great education to boot, among a multitude of other things (sorry for this massive, screwy sentence), I honestly cannot understand why anyone would turn Berkeley down...but that's just me. </p>
<p>Good luck on your decision.</p>
<p>Enjoy!! (and be sure to check out the Marin and Berkeley photo galleries). Marin because that's my favorite place within the SF Bay Area, and Berkeley because that's where you'll be going to school (hehe).</p>
<p>First of all I based my comment on actually visiting the campus and Ithaca- I spent the past three summers in Upstate and Central New York and have also been there in the winter. Hearsay?- well I guess you can just disregard the opinions of ppl I know who go to Cornell as hearsay, I was just stating what they have told me. Honestly, I think Cornell's obviously a great school, I just didn't like it when I visited there, especially in the winter. It is beautiful in the summer but I'm not going to be at school during the summer. It was the antics of some of the other posters on this board that made me post. I usually never post anything derogatory about other schools but jib jab annoyed me with his stupid comments. Jibber Jabber, I hope you're not representative of the rest of the Cornell student body. Your maturity level is equivalent to a middle schooler as post #22 illustrates.</p>
<p>how can you go on the Cornell forum, call Cornell lame, make other rude comments about a school that most of us love and are currently attending and not expect to be called an idiot? smart people go to Cornell...glad you're not one</p>
<p>Berkeley provides possibly the WORST undergrad experience of any elite university in the country. many of my friends and classmates go there, i used to live near Berkeley...my comments are not just 'heresay' they are truth...you want to talk depression? then talk to my fellow classmate who has chosen to go to cc after his own roommate decided to erase his thesis from his computer...talk to another classmate who doesnt even go to class anymore because its pointless...talk to the 2004 valedictorian from my high school who is failing out of Berkeley because of the ultracompetetiveness and lack of healthy human interaction
you know nothing sofla</p>
<p>I think you're the first person that cited weather as a reason to go to Cornell. But, you're right, the campus is great. From what I've heard Cornell is great for the sciences, but Rice offers more attention. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Berkeley provides possibly the WORST undergrad experience of any elite university in the country. many of my friends and classmates go there, i used to live near Berkeley...my comments are not just 'heresay' they are truth...you want to talk depression? then talk to my fellow classmate who has chosen to go to cc after his own roommate decided to erase his thesis from his computer...talk to another classmate who doesnt even go to class anymore because its pointless...talk to the 2004 valedictorian from my high school who is failing out of Berkeley because of the ultracompetetiveness and lack of healthy human interaction
[/quote]
JabberJibber, i heard the same thing about cornell. What you mentioned happens at every school. Why? You may ask. The reason behind it is simple; every individual is different! Theres not one school that is perfect for everyone.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Berkeley's med school admit rate was a little under 70% last time I checked.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Here is the premed comparative data, Berkeley graduating seniors vs. nationwide. I'll let others determine what it means.</p>
<p>Jib jab listen I should have expected to hear flack from you for calling Cornell lame. You're the first one to comment that Berkeley was lame.....if you can dish it you should be able to take it and not act like a two year old. I've spent the past summer taking classes at Berkeley, granted it was the summer, but I have a pretty good inclination on how the people at Berkeley are and all my classmates, students who go to Berkeley, were very helpful and I was thoroughly impressed with the school. You're insults to my intelligence don't phase me.... you make me happy I never even thought about applying to Cornell. And before you go and inevitably say I am not smart enough to get into Cornell, you should know I got accepted to Berkeley OOS which has the same acceptance rate as Cornell, actually lower. You're comments are YOUR opinion and I have MY opinion. I respect your right to think whatever you want about Berkeley, frankly I don't care. I just stated my opinion and what people I know who go to Cornell have told me. Damn even Kurt Vonnegut R.I.P. who went to Cornell wrote of the sun being the only enjoyable part of his cornell experience.</p>
<p>though immature, Jabber's comments about Berkeley seem to be pretty accurate
total superstars from my school go to berkeley and become depressed losers because they cant deal with the dreary, competetive atmosphere and humungous class sizes...almost the same thing happend to my school's valedictorian from when i was a freshman...it's pretty upsetting to see that actually...
mojojo, from what ive seen, it's not just about the people- Berkeley messes people up! :P (my school sends an average of 15 people to Berkeley every year btw)</p>
<p>also, OP i say Cornell!!! :)</p>
<p>It appears that the OP is out of state for Berkeley. Berkeley definitely aint worth out of state money. Its premed program isn't terrible outside of the atrocious acceptance rate of its applicants to Top 20 med schools but it's not as good as Cornell or Rice. Nice to see some Northern Californians chime in.</p>
<p>Please do not listen to JabberJibber...you can tell by their very very few posts that (a) there animous towards berkerley is such that listening to their diatribe will not be very useful and (b) like many berkeley detractors, they are painting the entire university with a broad brush from only a handful of their own experiences. </p>
<p>Cornell and Berkeley are very similar as universities. They are both large, research based institutions that require significant self-motivation to succeed. They both have unlimited opportunities for research, amazing faculty and brilliant students. Cornell's social scene focuses more on the college campus and greek scene. Berkeley's scene focuses on the offerings of the surrounding city and San Francisco. To say berkeley has no social scene is the most asinine thing I have ever heard. You cannot blame the university for those students who refuse to leave the sanctuary of their dorms and the campus in order to take advantage of the offerings of the Bay Area.</p>
<p>Having lived in the Bay Area (and the majority of my family are Cal grads) I can tell you that the social and artistic offerings of the Bay Area are unparalleled. Ithaca, while it does attract interesting acts and speakers is about 1/1,000th as exciting as the Bay Area. Ithaca is beautiful in the summer, and there's plenty to do, but it's like comparing apples and oranges. I should note that they Bay Area and California in general provide myriad opportunities for outdoor excursions and the like. If you want to get out into the middle of nowhere, it's much easier to do so in California than New York.</p>
<p>As for class sizes--let me just say that once your school is bigger than about 10,000 students, you really won't notice much of a difference. Both schools will have monster classes (in fact, the largest class at Cornell is substantially bigger in enrollment than the largest class at Berkeley). Additionally, as you move into upper division course work, you are more likely to encounter smaller seminar style courses that at most, have maybe 20 people. My last year at Cornell, not one class I took had more than 20 students.</p>
<p>Anyway, I felt compelled to respond. One sided diatribes like those seen from Jibber-whatever the hell his name is are rarely useful and just waste the time of those students who are actually trying to make very tough, difficult and important decisions.</p>
<p>Best of luck,
Cheers,
CornellGrad02</p>
<p>Oh, and one more thing...Cornell is about as diverse in people of color as the north pole is in plant life. If people are going to classify Berkeley as just "a bunch of Asian people," then I will classify Cornell as just a bunch of upper middle-class, rich white people (mostly from the northeast). I would imagine that the proportion of Asians at Berkeley is still less than the proportion of whites at Cornell.</p>
<p>I loved Cornell (Ithaca left something to be desired sometimes) and I say the above as one of those upper middle-class white kids (though not from the northeast).</p>
<p>Cheers,
CornellGrad02</p>
<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I randomly googled the title (Cornell or UCB) and came across this thread. Interesting read. Too serious at times. But nonetheless, informative. </p>
<p>Anyway, as it is already clear, I am in a somewhat similar situation and have less than 2 weeks to decide where to go - Cornell or UCB? </p>
<p>About weather, I have never really bothered too much about it (Never got a chance to. I mean you're going there to study--to hell with the snow!) And about city life-never bothered too much about it either. Perhaps, I belong to the bunch of people who get used to where they are put =)</p>
<p>I am a person who cares about how intellectually charged the institution's atmosphere is. I need some motivation to push myself (although it always sucks to go unnoticed in a crowd of smart people). But I think it is important. That being said, I believe in healthy competition; not people erasing a thesis from a mate's laptop!! (OMG!!) </p>
<p>And oh..I am also very money-minded presently and from what I see, both schools have comparable costs. Although I have heard that UCB offers fin aid/schlps to continuing students too whereas Cornell does not.</p>
<p>Also, how true is it to say that UCB students have a better chance of getting good jobs and sooner (as soon as within the first year!).</p>
<p>Does anybody have a suggestion that could help me decide? Any amount of help is appreciated=)</p>
<p>P.S. I wish to read engineering.</p>
<p>Hey everyone, I made my decision to go to Rice. I attended Owl Weekend last week(a program for accepted students) and it was amazing. Now, I haven’t been to these programs at either Berkeley or Cornell, but with the scholarship they are offering me, I was leaning toward Rice even before I visited.</p>
<p>The Rice campus is just gorgeous, and the people were so friendly and intelligent. I attended classes, looked around the research facilities, participated in a psychology experiment, went to concerts…. I had so much fun! I feel like I would be just really happy as a Rice student.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who replied to my message- it gave me a direction to look at and see the colleges from different points of view.</p>